the nra told us it is opposed to any registry of law-abiding gun owners. so workers here are left with an antiquated system to trace 350,000 guns a year, require them to review by hand tons of paper records and 500 million entries on microfilm. they say it's the law enforcement equivalent of the horse and buggy. the investigators spend much of their time on the phones. >> we actually have to contact the chain -- all the dealers in the chain of distribution. >> reporter: more than a third of the traces involve a gun store that's gone out of business. those records are sent to the tracing center which receives more than a thousand boxes a month. many of the records are barely legible. >> so, for example, these are records that we received as a result of hurricane katrina. we had to dry these out in the parking lot. >> reporter: you dried these out in the parking lot. >> yes, sir, we did. >> reporter: despite the burdensome process, gun traces that are marked urgent are usually completed within 24 hours, but reteen traces ainge about five days. the atf's work